Alluring Darkness – Seven Nightmares

While we still have no idea when the next comeback teaser is… Dreamcatcher just dropped their VCR from the first Korean concert – Welcome to the Dream World. And what a video it is. I mean it’s even resolution-accurate in 360p and 4:3 aspect ratio. So far they’ve been a picture of consistency, effort, and proper direction. The world-building and fiction always has some thought put into it with their every release.

The promotional video itself is as important as Dreamcatcher’s music videos. As much effort has been put into its production with the set and costume designs. Even with the music we hear in the background. They could have just reused a few of their tracks, but no. We get a magnificent new melody. The most surprising part of it for me were the swelling strings. If orchestral rock is where we’re headed then get me into that hype train fast. This is their evolving music.

The first shots in the VCR show the seven girls appearing in old newspaper clippings dated as far back as 1912. They just established a timeline of over a hundred years. We get a reference to the RMS Titanic sinking in the dawn of April 15, 1912. There’s a heavy dose of haunting through what appears to be sympathetic witchcraft. Each of the girls experience something terrifying and it is mirrored to their victim as his nightmares. In the end we see him helplessly trapped inside of a mirror, like the previous hunter was. We see him wake, but something is strange. The Seven Nightmares are looming over him. And as the final cut zooms in we see in his eyes an eerie glow.

The subtle clues left in the VCR unravel the ways which the Seven Nightmares move in and out of the Dream World. And how they open the gates to invite their victims in. The longer timeline indicates their age – or lack thereof. They are not a recent incident but a phenomena that has piqued the interest of many before the protagonist; even a hundred years before. How would I handle immortal Nightmares? What if they lived through a one person’s dreams each time. One recurring cycle. Like phases of the moon. Haunting them in their sleep and giving them visions. Making them obsessed with tracking the seven girls down.

Chase Me. That’s an odd song for ghosts to sing. Why would you invite your own enemies. Unless… The Nightmares are the ones doing the hunting. I previously described the song as a playful taunt, but that might be a mistake. It’s a siren’s song – a bewitching melody to lure victims to their own demise. It’s full of deceit and malice. The protagonists on all the previous videos all have one thing in common – an obsession. The camera, the books, the boy, the articles. Each acts as a hook that drags them into darkness. That’s how the haunts begin.

Successive possessions from generation to generation would render the Seven Nightmares effectively undying. And unforgotten. The nightmare hunters are actually the ones afflicted. That’s why they cannot stop searching. We never saw any other victims in the previous videos. There was always only one. We see the seven girls smiling at the mirror. At the other side we see someone trapped. When the protagonist wakes he has a ghostly glint in his eyes and the seven spirits standing over him. What was an expression of terror before is now blank and calm. They ended with trading places. The mirror is the gate. They invited one into the dream world, and now the seven are out into the mortal world again. “In the endlessly repeating nightmare. Stay trapped like this forever. Like my very own doll.” Good Night.

So that leaves a question – is it an act of malice or a cry for help? Do they seek to torment or be freed from their undying torment? We’ll see on the next comeback.